Tropical Storm lashes south China and Vietnam by Alex Deakin
A tropical storm has hammered the South China island province of Hainan and northern Vietnam with heavy rain all week.
Originating in the South China Sea, the twenty-second tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific storm season brought as much as 400mm (19 inches) to the region.
In Hainan, rains started on Saturday, and persisted until Tuesday, causing flash floods for low lying parts of the island. At least 3 people are reported to have died and thousands were evacuated, as over 150 small villages became submerged in the floodwaters.
The storm tracked northwest, between Hainan and northern Vietnam, before making landfall near Vinh on Vietnam’s east coast on Wednesday. It has now been downgraded to a tropical depression, and is weakening in intensity as it moves inland over Laos and Cambodia.
The threat of heavy rain from this tropical depression has now passed, but an area of very moist air following in the storm’s wake could bring further rain to Hainan and Vietnam over the next few days.
